Easy Texturized Vegetable Protein aka TVP

 I have been using TVP for over 40 years now. I started using it then because I wanted to get fit. So I went on a lacto ovo vegetarian diet. Did I ever get fit, never had a headache, was a runner, swimmer.  Loved to dance.  Weighing in at 100 lbs. Wow, it all slipped away when I married a well to do business man. He introduced me into oriental gourmet, and meats with their tantalizing sauces and flavors.  Unfortunately our marriage disolved within months, but not my eating habits.  I continued on this path of destruction, slowly killing myself cooking meats, junk foods, etc.  It just got harder to get back to a healthier eating (healtheir eating = healthier lifestyle)habit. I've been diagnosed with diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol etc... bla bla bla!
 But here I am, doing it again,40 years later.  Only this time it's ALL HOME MADE!  I have total control of what goes in my body.  Today I choose GOOD EATING. Already I feeling better and its been only 2 months.Thank Heavenly Father!  No more depression, fatigue, aches and pains residing.  And no more tremors.  Yay!  Thank you Dr. Adam Mamelak, at Cedars Sinai Medical Center!  Not a dull moment in my life.

Ahem, getting back to TVP I started using it  because it was a healthier alternative to meat. Personally of all the other faux meats, this one is the best. It absorbs the flavors very well.  And it really doesn't have that odd taste of TVP.  Sometimes I do 1/2 meat and 1/2 TVP.  My "eaters" never knew the difference. LOL

I accidently discovered 15 years ago, that if I put the tofu in the freezer to freeze, the texture came out spongy. At first I thought ugh, what am I going to do with this. It no longer was the tofu I put in texture wise so I dried it and Voila!! Looks, and cooks just like TVP. I gotta admit the taste is better than store bought TVP. They claim it has no taste but I can taste it. Not my HOME MADE TVP! Here it is folks...

• wash and freeze tofu
• defrost and squeeze whey out (reserve whey)
• crumble and cook like ground meat
• or oven dry on low and store. Talk about storing, this is a great emergency food, to keep around.

Today the going rate of TVP averages $4.00 lb. You can make your own, paying only the price of your tofu. What? Maybe $1.19. Big $avings here folks. It all adds up.

  FYI, it would be cheaper to make your own tofu out of fresh soybean, but that's another story, and not today:)
<<smile>>